Rajasthan Royals (RR) young gun Yashasvi Jaiswal posted the highest individual score by an uncapped player in Indian Premier League (IPL) history as he scored 62-ball 124 against Mumbai Indians on Sunday. It was also the 1000th IPL match. In the match, the left-hander scored 124 in just 62 balls. His knock consisted of 16 fours and eight towering sixes. His runs came at a strike rate of 200.00. Previously, the highest score by an uncapped Indian player was held by Paul Valthaty, who scored 120* for Punjab Kings (PBKS) against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in 2011.
Shaun Marsh, then an uncapped Australia batter back in 2008 had scored 115 for Punjab against Rajasthan Royals in 2008. Manish Pandey had also scored 114* against Deccan Chargers for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) back in 2009.
Jaiswal is also the fourth-youngest to have scored an IPL century, at the age of 21 years, 123 days. The youngest century scorer in IPL is Manish Pandey, who was 19 years, 253 days old back in 2009 when he made a century for RCB.
Coming to the match, RR posted 212/7 in their 20 overs. It was Yashasvi's one-man-army effort that guided RR to such a massive total as the rest of the batters failed to touch even 20 runs. The next highest scorer was Jos Buttler, who had scored just 18 runs.
Arshad Khan was the pick of the bowlers for MI, taking 3/39 in his four overs. Piyush Chawla took 2/34 in his four overs. Riley Meredith and Jofra Archer got a wicket each.
Chasing the target, Mumbai Indians rode on Suryakumar Yadav and Tim David's heroics to overhaul RR's total with three balls to spare. Though the match ended in a defeat for the Royals, it was Jaiswal who was named the Player of the Match.
At the end of the game, the young opening batter said: "When I scored the century, I didn't know that ball had gone to the boundary. So when that happened, I just thanked God for the opportunity, I always had this dream, wanted to work on the process and work hard. Results will follow. I keep myself mentally strong and work on my fitness and diet. Organised my life well outside of cricket. I enjoy playing the straight drive and cover drive, that gives me a lot of confidence. Thank you so much, everyone for the support!!"
Despite the defeat, Rajasthan are well placed at the 3rd position in the IPL 2023 standings.
With ANI inputs